There are a 183 or so days left in the magnificent George W. Bush Administration. Remember the condescending caterwauling by the Republicans when the Clintons were winding down and leaving office? Of course you do. Heavens to Betsy, they were going to plunder the country right down to stealing the "W"s off all the keyboards and typewriters. So, what is George Bush up to as the sun sets on his catastrophic presidency? What kind of Payne will he cause?
Glad you asked. Here is one example, rapacious influence peddling to fund his Presidential Crayon Workshop Library. From the Mid-East Times:
The Justice Department says it has no record that it told a GOP lobbyist accused of influence-peddling that he did not have to register his activities arranging visits to the United States and meetings with Bush administration officials for Central Asian politicians.
…
The lobbyist, a major GOP fundraiser called Stephen Payne, this week was asked to resign from a Department of Homeland Security advisory panel after he was surreptitiously videotaped by the London Sunday Times. In excerpts of the tape posted by the newspaper, Payne offers to arrange meetings for an exiled former president of Kazakhstan with senior U.S. administration officials in return for a six-figure fee, including a quarter-million-dollar donation to the $200 million fundraising effort for the George W. Bush presidential library and museum.
Here is a video of Payne in the act; it is pretty damning.
We have been seeing all sorts of instances of the final grab for the country’s treasure by the Bush-Cheney gang as they prepare to flee with their tail between their legs and ill begotten booty on their backs. Doling out of no bid deals. Multi-million dollar gift contracts to Ashcroft by the DOJ. Federal land giveaways. Trashing of environmental regulations for favorite friends and industries. Seeding of the civil service corps with Regent clones. You name it, it has been cropping up. So I though it would be a fun exercise to have a working thread to list out all the instances of this plundering.
So, as Mr. Haney (Bush) and Fred Sanford (Cheney – It’s the big one Lynne, it’s the big one!) perpetrate their parting scams and thefts and move back to the scrubbrush of Texas, let’s make a list of what they are doing. And any other necessary discussion too.
UPDATE: – Oh this is good. Per my homeboy AZMatt in comments, Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s chief foreign policy and national security adviser is involved with Payne’s team of influence peddlers and, according to Payne, Scheunemann has been "working with me on my payroll for five of the last eight years."